"We have hundreds, perhaps thousands of tons of spent fuel elements now waiting to be processed. Can you imagine what it will be like if we have several hundred nuke plants operating?"
Currently we have about 55,000 tons of spent fuel elements.
Yucca can hold 77,000 tons- & DOE proposed increasing Yucca to 132,000 tons.[Obviously, none is stored in Yucca at moment]
We are presently making about 3000 tons per year.
With about 100 or so nuclear plants in US.
"After 3 to 5 years in the reactor, one-third of the fuel assemblies are removed and stored in storage pools for typically about 10 to 20 years. During this period, the fuel loses much of its radioactivity and heat. After that period, the fuel can be stored in large sealed metal casks that can be cooled by air."
http://www.nucleartourist.net/basics/hlwaste.htm
Current Events » in reply to Notes for another, dull, boring technical article.
re: Notes for another, dull, boring technical article.
The whole thread (25 posts)
- A good article on nuclear energy
- I've decided that my position on Nuclear power is the same as Barak Obama's (n/t)
- recycling spent fuel rods
- I think we just need to put all the spent fuel rods on the Moon.
- Deconstructing a good article on nucular energy